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‘Impossible to put down … This is a book about coming out of hell, about great evil, about the triumph of the human spirit, and about the great goodness on the part of those who helped. One is left with hope, and admiration’ Julia Neuberger, THE TIMES

‘A story of human resilience, fortitude and victory that restores the readers’ hope for mankind’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘This is the story of human beings sucked into a vortex of destruction in which family, identity, religion and culture were all ripped away. A sense of near-miraculous calm descends when the Boys finally arrive in Britain, when human fortitude finally prevails over absolute evil’ David Cesarani, TLS

In August 1945, the first of 732 child survivors of the Holocaust reached Britain. First settled in the Lake District, they formed a tightly knit group of friends whose terrible shared experience is almost beyond imagining. This is their story, which begins in the lost communities of pre-World War II central Europe, moves through ghetto, concentration camp and death march, to liberation, survival, and finally, fifty years later, a deeply moving reunion. Martin Gilbert has brought together the recollections of this remarkable group of survivors to tell their astonishing stories.

Reviews

DAILY TELEGRAPH
A masterpiece of decency, courage and joy ... superb
SPECTATOR
This is an important book ... [an] appalling and wonderful account of efficiently administered savagery, and how a few of its victims with extraordinary courage, resilience and luck, managed to salvage their humanity
FINANCIAL TIMES
It is only when you read individual stories like these that you can come anywhere near grasping the full enormity of the events
SUNDAY TIMES
A story of human resilience, fortitude and victory that restores the readers' hope for mankind
David Cesarani, TLS
This is the story of human beings sucked into a vortex of destruction in which family, identity, religion and culture were all ripped away. A sense of near-miraculous calm descends when the Boys finally arrive in Britain, when human fortitude finally prevails over absolute evil
KIRKUS
Assembled by one of the period's premier historians ... A uniquely effective addition to Holocaust literature
LITERARY REVIEW
Martin Gilbert is to be congratulated on producing a masterly and deeply moving tribute to those who had the courage and luck to survive
TLS
Martin Gilbert has given us yet another indispensable work
Julia Neuberger, THE TIMES
Impossible to put down ... This is a book about coming out of hell, about great evil, about the triumph of the human spirit, and about the great goodness on the part of those who helped. One is left with hope, and admiration
DAILY TELEGRAPH
A series of testimonials to endurance and resourcefulness
NEW STATESMAN
He doesn't hide the dark side of the stories: he does stress the resilience of their humanity. It's amazing and true
TIME OUT
A moving mosaic comprising the voices of the young refugees, setting this against eye-witness accounts of the European experience ... The scope is vast. Research at its best